Base station repeaters are used to provide or improve the radio coverage of a cellular or mobile telecommunications network at locations where that coverage is not available or poor. For example, in the basement of a building, the radio signals from a base station of the mobile telecommunications network may be attenuated by the surrounding ground such that a mobile telecommunications device cannot be used in the basement to make or receive calls using the mobile telecommunications network.
Known repeaters repeat (amplify) received radio signals over a frequency band, or at least a large range of frequencies. The amplification of large frequency bands indiscriminately can cause interference with the mobile telecommunications network and to surrounding radio telecommunications services.
Another conventional approach is to pre-configure a repeater to work at a particular frequency prior to shipping the repeater to an end user. However, this requires the supplier of the repeater to ascertain the appropriate frequency before shipping the repeater. In a mobile telecommunications network, the appropriate frequency will depend upon the precise location at which the repeater will be used. Therefore, ascertaining the appropriate frequency is not straightforward.
Yet another conventional approach is to ship the repeater in an unconfigured state and to require the end user to set the frequency of the repeater when installing it. However, such an arrangement requires considerable end user knowledge, and is therefore prone to error.
There have also been proposals for repeaters to be configured after shipping to an end user by establishing a communication session between the repeater and a remote control centre. The remote control centre instructs the repeater to operate on certain frequencies. Such an arrangement is disadvantageous because: (1) it requires a control centre and a repeater to have the necessary hardware and software components to establish a communication session, and (2) the control centre will need to know the precise location at which the repeater is used in order to instruct the repeater to amplify signals at an appropriate frequency (the selection of an appropriate frequency not being straightforward in a mobile telecommunications network, as discussed above).